Power loading substrates to reduce particle contamination

ABSTRACT

A method for preventing particle contamination within a processing chamber is disclosed. Preheating the substrate within the processing chamber may cause a thermophoresis effect so that particles within the chamber that are not adhered to a surface may not come to rest on the substrate. One method to increase the substrate temperature is to plasma load the substrate. Plasma loading comprises providing an inert gas plasma to the substrate to heat the substrate. Another method to increase the substrate temperature is high pressure loading the substrate. High pressure loading comprises heating the substrate while increasing the chamber pressure to between about 1 Torr and about 10 Torr. By rapidly increasing the substrate temperature within the processing chamber prior to substrate processing, particle contamination is less likely to occur.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a process forpreventing particle contamination in processing chambers.

2. Description of the Related Art

Plasma generated particles are an important source of contamination indevice manufacturing. During plasma processing, particles may form onthe chamber walls and eventually flake off. Particles may flake off whenthe chamber door is opened or closed. When the particles flake off, theymay float around in the chamber and come to rest on the chamber surfacewithout adhering to the surface. When the chamber door is reopened toplace another substrate into the chamber, the gush of air or change inpressure or temperature may cause the non-adhered particles to stir upand float around the chamber. The particles may then come to rest oncestability is reached. If the particles come to rest on the incomingsubstrate, then the substrate has been contaminated. The chamber may beperiodically cleaned, but to clean the chamber after each substrate isprocessed is quite time consuming and may result in decreased substratethroughput.

There is a need in the art to prevent particle contamination within aprocessing chamber on a substrate to substrate basis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally comprises a method for preventingparticle contamination within a processing chamber. Preheating thesubstrate within the processing chamber may cause a thermophoresiseffect so that particles within the chamber that are not adhered to asurface may not come to rest on the substrate. One method to increasethe substrate temperature is to plasma load the substrate. Plasmaloading comprises providing an inert gas plasma to the substrate to heatthe substrate. Another method to increase the substrate temperature ishigh pressure loading the substrate. High pressure loading comprisesheating the substrate while increasing the chamber pressure to betweenabout 1 Torr and about 10 Torr. By rapidly increasing the substratetemperature within the processing chamber prior to substrate processing,particle contamination is less likely to occur.

In one embodiment, a method for processing a substrate is disclosed. Themethod comprises plasma loading the substrate and providing a separatedeposition plasma within the chamber to deposit a material layer overthe substrate. The plasma loading comprises providing an inert plasmawithin the chamber to heat the substrate. The providing a separatedeposition plasma occurs after the plasma loading.

In another embodiment, a method for processing a substrate is disclosed.The method comprises high pressure loading the substrate within thechamber and providing a deposition plasma within the chamber to deposita material layer over the heated substrate. The high pressure loadingcomprises raising the pressure within the chamber to about 1 Torr toabout 10 Torr and heating the substrate while the chamber is maintainedat the pressure of about 1 Torr to about 10 Torr. The high pressureloading occurs in the absence of plasma. The high pressure loadingoccurs prior to providing the deposition plasma.

In another embodiment, a substrate processing apparatus is disclosed.The apparatus comprises a showerhead, a substrate support having asubstrate receiving surface, heating elements adapted to heat asubstrate on the substrate receiving surface, a power supply coupled tothe showerhead, and a controller. The controller is programmed toincrease the pressure of the chamber to about 1 Torr to about 10 Torr,provide an inert plasma to heat the substrate and provide a separatedeposition plasma after the inert plasma.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the presentinvention can be understood in detail, a more particular description ofthe invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference toembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Itis to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate onlytypical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to beconsidered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to otherequally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a sectional view of a plasma enhanced chemical vapordeposition (PECVD) chamber that may be used in connection with one ormore embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a sectional view of one exemplary physical vapordeposition (PVD) chamber that may be used in connection with one or moreembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a graph comparing temperature versus time.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in oneembodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments withoutspecific recitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention generally comprises a method for preventingparticle contamination within a processing chamber. Preheating thesubstrate within the processing chamber may cause a thermophoresiseffect so that particles within the chamber that are not adhered to asurface may not come to rest on the substrate. One method to increasethe substrate temperature is to plasma load the substrate. Plasmaloading comprises providing an inert gas plasma to the substrate to heatthe substrate. Another method to increase the substrate temperature ishigh pressure loading the substrate. High pressure loading comprisesheating the substrate while increasing the chamber pressure to betweenabout 1 Torr and about 10 Torr. By rapidly increasing the substratetemperature within the processing chamber prior to substrate processing,particle contamination is less likely to occur. Plasma loading and highpressure loading are two forms of power loading.

PECVD System

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system 100, available fromAKT®, a division of Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. Thesystem 100 generally includes a processing chamber 102 coupled to a gassource 104. The processing chamber 102 has walls 106 and a bottom 108that partially define a process volume 112. The process volume 112 istypically accessed through a port (not shown) in the walls 106 thatfacilitate movement of a substrate 140 into and out of the processingchamber 102. The walls 106 and bottom 108 are typically fabricated froma unitary block of aluminum or other material compatible withprocessing. The walls 106 support a lid assembly 110. The processingchamber 102 can be evacuated by a vacuum pump 184.

A temperature controlled substrate support assembly 138 is centrallydisposed within the processing chamber 102. The support assembly 138supports a substrate 140 during processing. In one embodiment, thesubstrate support assembly 138 comprises an aluminum body 124 thatencapsulates at least one embedded heater 132. The heater 132, such as aresistive element, disposed in the support assembly 138, is coupled toan optional power source 174 and controllably heats the support assembly138 and the substrate 140 positioned thereon to a predeterminedtemperature. Typically, in a CVD process, the heater 132 maintains thesubstrate 140 at a uniform temperature between about 150 degrees Celsiusto at least about 460 degrees Celsius, depending on the depositionprocessing parameters for the material being deposited.

The substrate support assembly 138 may include a two zone embeddedheater. One zone may be an inner heating zone that is located near thecenter of the substrate support assembly 138. The outer heating zone maybe located near the outer edge of the substrate support assembly 138.The outer heating zone may be set to a higher temperature do to higherthermal losses that may occur at the edge of the substrate supportassembly 138. An exemplary two zone heating assembly that may be used topractice the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,205,which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Generally, the support assembly 138 has a lower side 126 and an upperside 134. The upper side 134 supports the substrate 140. The lower side126 has a stem 142 coupled thereto. The stem 142 couples the supportassembly 138 to a lift system (not shown) that moves the supportassembly 138 between an elevated processing position (as shown) and alowered position that facilitates substrate transfer to and from theprocessing chamber 102. The stem 142 additionally provides a conduit forelectrical and thermocouple leads between the support assembly 138 andother components of the system 100.

A bellows 146 is coupled between support assembly 138 (or the stem 142)and the bottom 108 of the processing chamber 102. The bellows 146provides a vacuum seal between the chamber volume 112 and the atmosphereoutside the processing chamber 102 while facilitating vertical movementof the support assembly 138.

The support assembly 138 generally is grounded such that RF powersupplied by a power source 122 to a gas distribution plate assembly 118positioned between the lid assembly 110 and substrate support assembly138 (or other electrode positioned within or near the lid assembly ofthe chamber) may excite gases present in the process volume 112 betweenthe support assembly 138 and the distribution plate assembly 118. The RFpower from the power source 122 is generally selected commensurate withthe size of the substrate to drive the chemical vapor depositionprocess.

The support assembly 138 additionally supports a circumscribing shadowframe 148. Generally, the shadow frame 148 prevents deposition at theedge of the substrate 140 and support assembly 138 so that the substratedoes not stick to the support assembly 138.

The lid assembly 110 provides an upper boundary to the process volume112. The lid assembly 110 typically can be removed or opened to servicethe processing chamber 102. In one embodiment, the lid assembly 110 isfabricated from aluminum (Al).

The lid assembly 110 typically includes an entry port 180 through whichprocess gases provided by the gas source 104 are introduced into theprocessing chamber 102. The entry port 180 is also coupled to a cleaningsource 182. The cleaning source 182 typically provides a cleaning agent,such as disassociated fluorine, that is introduced into the processingchamber 102 to remove deposition by-products and films from processingchamber hardware, including the gas distribution plate assembly 118.

The gas distribution plate assembly 118 is coupled to an interior side120 of the lid assembly 110. The gas distribution plate assembly 118 istypically configured to substantially follow the profile of thesubstrate 140, for example, polygonal for large area flat panelsubstrates and circular for substrates. The gas distribution plateassembly 118 includes a perforated area 116 through which process andother gases supplied from the gas source 104 are delivered to theprocess volume 112. The perforated area 116 of the gas distributionplate assembly 118 is configured to provide uniform distribution ofgases passing through the gas distribution plate assembly 118 into theprocessing chamber 102. Gas distribution plates that may be adapted tobenefit from the invention are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat.Nos. 6,477,980; 6,772,827; 7,008,484; 6,942,753 and United States PatentPublished Application Nos. 2004/0129211 A1, which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties.

The gas distribution plate assembly 118 typically includes a diffuserplate 158 suspended from a hanger plate 160. The diffuser plate 158 andhanger plate 160 may alternatively comprise a single unitary member. Aplurality of gas passages 162 are formed through the diffuser plate 158to allow a predetermined distribution of gas passing through the gasdistribution plate assembly 118 and into the process volume 112. Thehanger plate 160 maintains the diffuser plate 158 and the interiorsurface 120 of the lid assembly 110 in a spaced-apart relation, thusdefining a plenum 164 therebetween. The plenum 164 allows gases flowingthrough the lid assembly 110 to uniformly distribute across the width ofthe diffuser plate 158 so that gas is provided uniformly above thecenter perforated area 116 and flows with a uniform distribution throughthe gas passages 162.

The diffuser plate 158 is typically fabricated from stainless steel,aluminum, anodized aluminum, nickel or other RF conductive material. Thediffuser plate 158 is configured with a thickness that maintainssufficient flatness across the aperture 166 as not to adversely affectsubstrate processing. In one embodiment the diffuser plate 158 has athickness between about 1.0 inch to about 2.0 inches. The diffuser plate158 could be circular for semiconductor substrate manufacturing orpolygonal, such as rectangular, for flat panel display manufacturing.

As shown in FIG. 1, a controller 186 is included to interface with andcontrol various components of the substrate processing system. Thecontroller 186 typically includes a central processing unit (CPU) 190,support circuits 192 and a memory 188.

PVD System

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary physical vapor deposition (PVD) processchamber 200 for depositing material onto a substrate 214 according toone embodiment of the invention. One example of the process chamber 200that may be adapted to benefit from the invention is a PVD processchamber, available from AKT®, a division of Applied Materials, Inc.,located in Santa Clara, Calif.

The process chamber 200 includes a chamber body 208 and a lid assembly204, defining a process volume 218. The chamber body 208 includessidewalls 210 and a bottom 246. The sidewalls 210 and/or bottom 246include a plurality of apertures, such as an access port 230 and apumping port (not shown). The lid assembly 204 generally includes atarget 220 and a ground shield assembly 226 coupled thereto. The target220 generally includes a peripheral portion 224 and a central portion216. The peripheral portion 224 is disposed over the sidewalls 210 ofthe chamber. The central portion 216 of the target 220 may protrude, orextend in a direction towards a substrate support 238.

Optionally, the lid assembly 204 may further comprise a magnetronassembly 202, which enhances consumption of the target material duringprocessing. Referring back to FIG. 2, during a sputtering process todeposit a material on the substrate 214, the target 220 and thesubstrate support 238 are biased relative each other by the power source232. A process gas, such as inert gas and other gases (i.e., argon, andnitrogen) is supplied to the process volume 218 from a gas source 228through one or more apertures (not shown), typically formed in thesidewalls 210 of the process chamber 200.

The ground shield assembly 226 includes a ground frame 206, a groundshield 212, or any chamber shield member, target shield member, darkspace shield, dark space shield frame, etc. A shaft 240 extends throughthe bottom 246 of the chamber body 208 and couples the substrate support238 to a lift mechanism 244. A shadow frame 222 and a chamber shield 236may be disposed within the chamber body 208.

As shown in FIG. 2, a controller 248 is included to interface with andcontrol various components of the substrate processing system. Thecontroller 248 typically includes a central processing unit (CPU) 252,support circuits 254 and a memory 250.

Particles and Thermophoresis

Particles may collect within a processing chamber when a process hascompleted. Particles are attracted to the coolest surface. When asubstrate enters a processing chamber, its temperature may be at roomtemperature or another temperature that is less than anything elsewithin the process chamber. Therefore, particles may collect on thesubstrate and contaminate the substrate. The particles may be presentbecause of flaking from the chamber or simply dust-like particles thatare floating within the chamber after a process. The particles tend tobe negatively charged because electrons have greater mobility thanpositive ions. The particles are sensitive to forces associated withgradients in neutral gas temperatures.

Theremophoresis is a phenomenon whereby negatively charged particlesmove away from a heated electrode and towards a cooled electrode. Byheating an element that is desired to be free of contaminants to thetemperature of the surroundings, particles may not gravitate towards theelement any more than towards any other item within the chamber. Jellumet al. in an article entitled Particle thermophoresis in low pressureglow discharges, J. Appl. Phys. 69(10), May 15, 1991 pp. 6923-6934,which is incorporated herein by reference, discusses the phenomenon ingreater detail.

Thermophoresis in Practice

Heating the substrate to the temperature greater than its surroundingsis a solution to preventing particle contamination on a substrate duringprocessing. Naturally, a dedicated preheating chamber would bebeneficial. Few particles would be present in a preheating chamberbecause no deposition or etching occurs in the preheating chamber. Thetemperature of the substrate may effectively be raised withoutcontamination from flaking. There is a drawback to a dedicatedpreheating chamber; it takes up a valuable chamber location in a clustertool. An exemplary cluster tool system that can be used to practice thepresent invention is the AKT® 50K cluster tool system. By preheatingwithin the processing chamber itself, processing chambers do not need tobe sacrificed for a preheating chamber.

In order to perform thermophoresis within a processing chamber, thesubstrate may need to be rapidly heated to a temperature greater than aprocessing chamber temperature so that the particles do not settle onthe substrate. For a PECVD system, the substrate may be heated to atemperature greater than the temperature of the showerhead. When thesubstrate is heated to a temperature greater than the showerhead, thesubstrate is no longer the coolest surface within the chamber. Asnegatively charged particles tend to gravitate towards the coolestsurface, contaminating particles may tend to gravitate away from thesubstrate once the substrate is at a temperature greater than theshowerhead.

One method for heating the substrate is plasma loading the substrate.For the plasma loading method, the substrate is placed into theprocessing chamber. In one embodiment, the processing chamber is adeposition chamber. In another embodiment, the processing chamber is aPECVD chamber. In another embodiment, the processing chamber is a PVDchamber. In another embodiment, the processing chamber is an etchingchamber. Thereafter, the processing chamber is sealed so that the plasmaloading and processing can occur. The pressure of the chamber isincreased to about 1 Torr to about 10 Torr. An inert gas plasma is thenprovided. The inert gas may be noble gas such as argon, krypton, xenon,helium, or neon, or other gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen. In oneembodiment, the plasma is formed remotely and provided to the chamber.In another embodiment, the plasma is ignited within the chamber. Theplasma then heats the substrate. After the plasma loading has completed(i.e., the temperature of the substrate is raised to a temperaturegreater than the showerhead in a PECVD chamber), substrate processingmay begin within the chamber. During the plasma loading, the susceptormay move up to engage the substrate either before the plasma isintroduced to the chamber or after the plasma is introduced into thechamber. The same chamber that performs the plasma loading may performthe substrate processing (i.e., deposition, etching, etc.).

The substrate may be plasma loaded either before or after the substrateis in its processing position. The processing position is the locationwithin the chamber where the processing (i.e., etching, deposition,etc.) will occur. To place the substrate in the processing position, thesusceptor may be raised to a location that provides the proper spacingbetween the substrate and the showerhead (PECVD) or the target (PVD).When the plasma loading occurs before the substrate is in the processingposition, valuable processing time can be saved.

In addition to the inert gas plasma, the substrate may be heated by asusceptor. The combination of the plasma and the susceptor heater canrapidly increase the temperature of the substrate so that particles donot rest on and contaminate the substrate. FIG. 3 shows a comparison ofheating the substrate by using only a susceptor heater (shown at line“B”) and by using the susceptor heater and plasma (shown at line “A”).As can be seen from FIG. 3, the susceptor heater and plasma together mayincrease the temperature of the substrate faster than the susceptorheater alone. By heating the substrate with the susceptor heater only,particles are likely to land on the substrate because the temperature ofthe substrate is low for a longer period of time. The substrate may beany suitable substrate such as a substrate for a flat panel display, asemiconductor substrate, a substrate for a solar panel, or any othersuitable substrate. In one embodiment, the substrate is an insulatingsubstrate such as glass.

In one embodiment, the showerhead may have a temperature of about 200degrees Celsius. The substrate may enter the processing chamber at aboutroom temperature (i.e., about 25 degrees Celsius). The substrate maythen be heated to a temperature greater than the temperature of theshowerhead by heating the substrate with the susceptor and an inert gasplasma. The susceptor may be a two zone heating susceptor as describedabove. In one embodiment, the outer zone may be heated to a temperatureof about 360 degrees Celsius while the inner zone may be heated to atemperature of about 340 degrees Celsius. The inert gas plasma and thesusceptor heating may cause the substrate temperature to rise from roomtemperature to about 300 degrees Celsius. The temperature of thesubstrate may rise at a rate of about 30 degrees Celsius per second.

TABLE I Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Process 3 3 3 3 Pressure(Torr) RF Power 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 (W) Process 1,100 1,100 1,1001,100 Spacing (mils) Gas Flow 20 40 60 80 Rate (slm)

Table I shows the processing conditions for four separate examples ofplasma loading with nitrogen plasma in a PECVD chamber. For eachexample, the process pressure was 3 Torr, and the spacing between thesubstrate and the showerhead was 1,100 mils. For the PECVD chamber, theshowerhead is grounded and is about 200 degrees Celsius. Note that thedeposition will occur in the same chamber as the plasma loading withnitrogen plasma. By preheating in the same chamber as the deposition,valuable processing chamber space can be saved in a cluster tool system.The substrate is grounded as well. If the substrate is not grounded, thesubstrate may etch. For each substrate in Table I, the thickness was 0.7mm.

In example 1, RF power was supplied to the showerhead at 3,000 W andnitrogen was provided as the inert gas. The nitrogen was provided at aflow rate of 20 slm. The time to heat the substrate to a temperaturegreater than the showerhead was about 10.

In example 2, RF power was supplied to the showerhead at 4,000 W andnitrogen was provided as the inert gas. The nitrogen was provided at aflow rate of 40 slm. The time to heat the substrate to a temperaturegreater than the showerhead was about 8.

In example 3, RF power was supplied to the showerhead at 5,000 W andnitrogen was provided as the inert gas. The nitrogen was provided at aflow rate of 60 slm. The time to heat the substrate to a temperaturegreater than the showerhead was about 6.

In example 4, RF power was supplied to the showerhead at 6,000 W andnitrogen was provided as the inert gas. The nitrogen was provided at aflow rate of 80 slm. The time to heat the substrate to a temperaturegreater than the showerhead was about 5.

As can be seen from the examples, by increasing the RF power supplied tothe showerhead and increasing the flow rate of the nitrogen gas, thesubstrate temperature was increased at a faster rate. The faster thatthe substrate can be heated to a temperature greater than theshowerhead, the less likely contamination particles may lay down on thesubstrate.

Another method for thermophoresis in processing chambers involves highpressure loading of the substrate. High pressure loading is similar tothe plasma loading except that no plasma is used.

The chamber pressure should be kept lower than about 10 Torr because atpressures greater than about 10 Torr, substrate throughput can beaffected. At the higher pressures (i.e., 1 Torr to about 10 Torr), thesubstrate temperature will increase at a faster rate than at atmosphericpressure.

The time to heat up the substrate may vary greatly with substratethickness. For example while only 10 seconds are necessary to heat up asubstrate in Example 1, when the substrate is increased in thickness to5 mm, the time may be about 300 seconds. In the case of high pressureloading, it takes 28 seconds to heat the substrate from room temperatureto 350 degrees Celsius, but for a 5 mm thick substrate, the time isabout 600 seconds. The time to heat up the substrate will increaseexponentially with an increase in thickness.

In one example of high pressure loading, a showerhead had a temperatureof about 250 degrees Celsius and a susceptor had a temperature of about360 degrees Celsius for both the inner and outer heating zones in aPECVD chamber. A 0.7 mm thick substrate was brought into the chamber atabout 100 degrees Celsius. The susceptor heated the substrate while thechamber was maintained at a pressure of 5 Torr. After about 17 seconds,the substrate reached the temperature of the showerhead. After about 37seconds, the substrate was at a relatively stable temperature of about340 degrees Celsius. During the high pressure loading, no gas flow wasprovided to the chamber.

By preheating the substrate to the processing chamber temperature at arapid rate, particle contamination may be avoided. Preheating within thesame processing chamber increases substrate throughput because aseparate dedicated preheating chamber is not necessary. Additionally,particle contamination may be avoided during a processing sequencewithout stopping the process to clean the chamber.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention,other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised withoutdeparting from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof isdetermined by the claims that follow.

1. A method of processing a substrate within a chamber, comprising:plasma loading the substrate, wherein the plasma loading comprisesproviding an inert plasma within the chamber to heat the substrate; andproviding a separate deposition plasma within the chamber to deposit amaterial layer over the substrate, wherein the providing a separatedeposition plasma occurs after the plasma loading.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the depositing comprises plasma enhanced chemical vapordeposition or physical vapor deposition.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the chamber comprises a showerhead and the substrate is heatedto a temperature greater than the showerhead prior to providing thedeposition plasma.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate isgrounded.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasmas are ignitedwithin the chamber.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the substratetemperature is about room temperature prior to the plasma loading. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the inert plasma is produced from a gasselected from the group consisting of N₂, He, Ar, and H₂.
 8. The methodof claim 1, wherein the chamber comprises a susceptor with an innerheating zone and an outer heating zone, and wherein the method furthercomprises heating the outer heating zone to a temperature greater thanthe inner heating zone.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrateis a flat panel display substrate or a solar panel substrate.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the chamber maintains a pressure of about 1Torr to about 10 Torr during the plasma loading.
 11. A method ofprocessing a substrate within a chamber, comprising: high pressureloading the substrate within the chamber, wherein the high pressureloading comprises raising the pressure within the chamber to about 1Torr to about 10 Torr and heating the substrate while the chamber ismaintained at the pressure of about 1 Torr to about 10 Torr, wherein thehigh pressure loading occurs in the absence of plasma; and providing adeposition plasma within the chamber to deposit a material layer overthe heated substrate, wherein the high pressure loading occurs prior toproviding the deposition plasma.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein thedepositing comprises plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition orphysical vapor deposition.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein thechamber comprises a showerhead and the substrate is heated to atemperature greater than the showerhead prior to providing thedeposition plasma.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the substrate isgrounded.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the deposition plasma isignited within the chamber.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein thesubstrate temperature is about room temperature prior to the highpressure loading.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the high pressureloading begins prior to raising the substrate to a processing positionwithin the chamber.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the chambercomprises a susceptor with an inner heating zone and an outer heatingzone, and wherein the method further comprises heating the outer heatingzone to a temperature greater than the inner heating zone.
 19. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the substrate is a flat panel displaysubstrate or a solar panel substrate.
 20. The method of claim 11,wherein the deposition plasma is ignited remotely from the chamber. 21.A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a showerhead; a substratesupport having a substrate receiving surface; heating elements adaptedto heat a substrate on the substrate receiving surface; a power supplycoupled to the showerhead; and a controller, the controller programmedto: increase the pressure of the chamber to about 1 Torr to about 10Torr; provide an inert plasma to heat the substrate; and provide aseparate deposition plasma after the inert plasma.
 22. The apparatus ofclaim 21, wherein the apparatus is a plasma enhanced chemical vapordeposition apparatus.
 23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the heatingelements are located within the substrate support.
 24. The apparatus ofclaim 23, wherein the substrate support comprises an inner heating zoneand an outer heating zone.
 25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein theapparatus is a physical vapor deposition apparatus.